Airport manager defends budget

Thursday

Jun 27, 2013 at 2:00 AMJun 27, 2013 at 11:00 PM

In presenting his annual budget to the town council last week, Barnstable Airport Manager Bud Breault took issue with comments and criticisms of his budget reporting by the Comprehensive Financial Advisory Committee.

Patriot Staff

In presenting his annual budget to the town council last week, Barnstable Airport Manager Bud Breault took issue with comments and criticisms of his budget reporting by the Comprehensive Financial Advisory Committee.

CFAC suggested in its annual report to the council that the airport Enterprise Fund break up its charges for services in order to show trends in key revenue components, such as fuel sales. The report also said the airport management did not list performance measures in its annual budget and workload measures needed more explanation.

“We haven’t met with CFAC on any aspect of the budget,” Breault told the council. “We don’t feel CFAC’s report is complete.”

Breault pointed out the airport’s financial challenges, including competition from the ferries, the new rail service, jet fuel prices changing regularly and lost leases on its properties. He said figures such as the number of passengers using the airport parking lot and renting cars give indications of performance.

He listed several other accomplishments for the year, saying, “Each year usually ends with a surplus. I feel we’ll generate sufficient funds in 2014.”

CFAC Chairwoman Laura Cronin responded in an e-mail to Breault’s comments, telling the Patriot her committee plans with airport representatives, tentatively in September.

“While we feel our comments are accurate, we are equally frustrated in that the amount of time CFAC is given to review the proposed operating budget does not permit meeting with departments prior to the requirement to convey our comments to the Town Council,” Cronin wrote. “We did, however, request the director of finance to insure that a copy of our communication to the council was sent to any town department mentioned in the text of the letter in order to permit the department the time to prepare for questions which might arise from members of the council.”

The council unanimously approved the airport’s $7.2 million FY 2014 budget and other Enterprise Fund budgets for the golf courses, community services, marinas and Sandy Neck.